Chapter 16 - BACK INSIDE THE WALLS
Police surrounded the estate before we returned.
Mara remained at the hospital under guard.
Perrin stayed with her.
I went with Ortiz.
Rhea had entered my house through the same network of hidden passages used to imprison Perrin.
She probably assumed police had finished searching them.
She was wrong.
A motion sensor installed after the first search detected movement beneath the west wing.
Ortiz refused to let me enter initially.
Then an officer found something that changed her mind.
Rhea had activated the house security system from inside.
She had locked several electronic doors.
She knew the estate better than the responding officers.
I knew it better than anyone.
We entered through the old library.
A concealed panel behind the fireplace connected to the servant corridor.
I had discovered it as a teenager.
My father made me promise never to use it.
I wondered how many secrets he had hidden there.
We moved slowly.
Ortiz ahead.
Me behind.
Two officers followed.
Voices carried through the passage.
A woman.
Rhea.
Then a man.
Bell.
They were together.
We stopped near a vent overlooking the old basement office.
Bell stood beside a table covered with documents and cash.
Rhea was packing them into a suitcase.
"You should have left Mara at Northbridge."
Bell's voice was calm.
Rhea snapped.
"You said the police wouldn't find it."
"They found it because you became emotional."
"I became emotional?"
Rhea laughed.
"You built this entire disaster because you couldn't control one woman."
Bell stepped closer.
"Everything was controlled until you decided you wanted Caleb."
My stomach turned.
Rhea slammed the suitcase shut.
"I deserved something."
"You deserved payment."
"I gave three years to this."
"You were an employee."
Rhea stared at him.
For the first time, I saw something I had never seen while living with her.
She looked afraid of Bell.
Mara had been right.
Rhea was not at the top.
Bell continued.
"The Director wants the small notebook."
Rhea froze.
"He has it."
"Caleb?"
"Yes."
"Then retrieve it."
"How?"
Bell smiled.
"You were going to marry him."
"Surely you learned something useful."
Ortiz glanced at me.
There it was.
Confirmation.
Bell was not the Director.
Someone else existed.
Rhea began pacing.
"Caleb won't trust me."
"He doesn't need to."
Bell opened his jacket.
A gun was tucked inside.
"We only need him alive long enough to tell us where the notebook is."
Ortiz silently radioed the tactical team.
Then a board creaked beneath my shoe.
Bell stopped talking.
Rhea looked toward the wall.
Silence.
Bell reached for his gun.
Ortiz kicked the concealed door open.
"Police!"
Everything happened at once.
Bell pulled the weapon.
Officers shouted.
Rhea threw herself behind the table.
Bell aimed toward us.
An officer fired.
Bell collapsed.
The gun slid across the floor.
Rhea ran.
Not toward the staircase.
Toward another wall.
She pressed a hidden latch and disappeared into the corridor.
I followed before anyone could stop me.
"Caleb!"
Ortiz shouted.
I knew where Rhea was going.
The hallway where I had found Perrin.
The hidden room.
I reached it seconds behind her.
She stood at the far end holding a metal crowbar.
Her face was streaked with sweat.
Her blonde wig was gone.
"Stay back."
I stopped.
"Where are you going?"
"Anywhere you're not."
"Police have the house surrounded."
She laughed.
"You still think this house only has one exit?"
She struck the wall with the crowbar.
A panel cracked.
Behind it was another narrow shaft.
Before she climbed inside, I spoke.
"Mara is alive."
Rhea froze.
"Perrin is safe."
Her grip tightened.
"You lost."
Slowly, she turned.
"You think this was about winning?"
"What was it about?"
Her eyes filled with something between rage and grief.
"Having one thing that belonged to me."
I stared at her.
"Nothing here belonged to you."
May you like
That broke whatever control remained.
She rushed toward me.
